Our View: One More Step Toward A News Desert?

Local journalism matters. 

And obviously, you don’t need convincing of that fact. After all, you’re reading a hometown newspaper — a source for stories you increasingly won’t find elsewhere. Not on podcasts, not in your social media feed, and not in the regional or Boston papers and TV stations.

Here’s a fact: to be a well informed citizen, you need a wide diet of reliable news sources. Those of us who were here in the early 1990s remember when almost every Cape town had at least two hometown weeklies; a vibrant, well-staffed daily paper; multiple radio stations doing original news reporting; a cable TV news service and a broadcast TV station based in Hyannis, covering Cape-exclusive news. We remember attending press conferences where there were more reporters than newsmakers.

The hometown media landscape has changed dramatically since then. News conferences are rare, because there are so few journalists who would show up. Most of the newspapers on the Cape are owned by a single conglomerate, leaving only three weeklies — The Chronicle, the Provincetown Independent and the Enterprise papers on the Upper Cape — offering independent voices. Even the region’s public radio station has been forced to cut its news staff.

So when the Lower Cape loses a news outlet, it’s a big deal.

We learned this week that Lower Cape TV is closing its newsroom, the result of sweeping layoffs prompted by declining cable TV subscriptions. With its fine staff, Lower Cape TV produced original, community-based programming that conveys the unique flavor of the region. Their staff and citizen-journalists worked collaboratively with the schools and Lower Cape nonprofits, producing not only helpful public affairs programming but worthy hometown news.

The problem was well put by Teresa Martin, LCTV’s soon-to-be-laid-off executive director.

 “I personally believe that we need journalism more than ever before,” she said.

We agree wholeheartedly. Should Martin and her colleagues find a way to continue their important work, they deserve our support. 

After all, investments in local journalism benefit us all.